Barcelona fourth pre-season test Test day four
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Lindsay Ross, a resident American F1 fanatic in Tokyo, has sent us an interesting update from Japan, where bigger things than F1 are happening:
"Unbelievable amounts of damage to the north, mainly from the tsunamis. Tokyo is gridlocked, most trains are still not working and almost ever motorway is shut down. Made it home finally an my apartment is a wreck, but even broken guitars and everything else isn't too bad when I'm watching videos of HOUSES being swept to sea... ON FIRE.
"Related to F1: Kamui Kobayashi is from the south and everything down there is totally fine, I've confirmation from my friends. So, while he's most likely be worried, he probably won't need to fear for his family."
Our thoughts are with all the people affected by the tsunami.
"Unbelievable amounts of damage to the north, mainly from the tsunamis. Tokyo is gridlocked, most trains are still not working and almost ever motorway is shut down. Made it home finally an my apartment is a wreck, but even broken guitars and everything else isn't too bad when I'm watching videos of HOUSES being swept to sea... ON FIRE.
"Related to F1: Kamui Kobayashi is from the south and everything down there is totally fine, I've confirmation from my friends. So, while he's most likely be worried, he probably won't need to fear for his family."
Our thoughts are with all the people affected by the tsunami.
He will also get to test the Mercedes upgrades
Schumacher's day is over, and Mercedes will now be preparing the car for team-mate Rosberg
Alonso pits for the third time, 12 laps after his second stop
@MikeGascoyne on Lotus's programme: Tried to last 20 laps for a stint but drop off was big at the end. Repeating that run with some setup changes.Out again, 100 lap done so far
Alonso is on the 33rd lap of his stint and on the 11th since he stopped
Kovalainen has returned to the track to completed his 100th round of the day
Then again it could be that Red Bull has nothing else to test..
Sebastian Vettel
Vettel finally heads out of the pits. He has managed just 33 laps so far
Once again, Ferrari goes over the 100-lap mark. The Italian team will be on top of the mileage classification by some margin when testing ends
Except for a 1m30, Alonso has been running strongly in the 1m27s and 1m28s since his second stop
Kobayashi is also on a longish run so far, having covered eight consecutive laps
Ninety-nine laps for the Finn, who is currently topping the laps chart from Alonso, on 97
Kovalainen has stopped after a 20-lap run during which he averaged a 1m31.929s
Unlike Alonso, the Finn has not stopped yet
Kovalainen has done 18 laps so far and has dropped into the 1m32s
A 1m27.255s marks the quickest lap of the run for the Spaniard
Fernando Alonso
All of the Ferrari's laps have been in the 1m28s, 1m29s, and 1m30s. None slower than that
Alonso makes the second pitstop of his race simulation 13 laps after his first
And some info from Team Lotus too: Review from this morning: we did some performance runs, worked on balance, some set-up and aero work to characterise the latest aero package and set up the car around that. In the background we also worked on engine mapping to improve driveability, and launches
@OfficialLRGP informs: The plan is still to simulate a race distance before the end of the day in BCN. Expect a few long runs from Nick.
Schumacher drives his Mercedes out of the pits once more
Kovalainen, meanwhile, is on the 14th lap of the stint, lapping in the 1m31s consistently, and not having stopped
Alonso is on the 20th lap of his race simulation, and on the 11th since he pitted for the first time
Jim Devereaux asks: Some of the sets of Pirelli tyres the teams are running have their markings in white instead of yellow, is this going to be the indication of which compound a driver is running when we get to the races?
Pirelli has been experimenting with different markings since the last test in Barcelona, but the final markings will be announced next week, so there is nothing final yet.
Pirelli has been experimenting with different markings since the last test in Barcelona, but the final markings will be announced next week, so there is nothing final yet.
There are no new news on Button. He is still in the pits waiting for his engine to be replaced
Heidfeld posts his first time of the afternoon: 1m29.638s
Nine laps so far for Kovalainen, who is mostly running in the 1m31s
We got some questions about whether Hispania will be able to qualify within the 107 per cent considering the lack of running with the new car.
Well, last year its quickest car in Q1 in Australia was 5.752 off the pace over a lap of 1m24s.
Let's say this year's laps will be around two/three seconds slower (if that), which means the Hispanias would have to be within some six seconds off the fastest time again to be able to qualify.
Of course, Australia was the second race of the season last year, so the team had the Bahrain experience behind it already.
But then again this year's car is expected to more developed than last year's F110.
In short: let's wait and see..
Well, last year its quickest car in Q1 in Australia was 5.752 off the pace over a lap of 1m24s.
Let's say this year's laps will be around two/three seconds slower (if that), which means the Hispanias would have to be within some six seconds off the fastest time again to be able to qualify.
Of course, Australia was the second race of the season last year, so the team had the Bahrain experience behind it already.
But then again this year's car is expected to more developed than last year's F110.
In short: let's wait and see..
After two laps in the 1m29s, Alonso is again in the 1m30s on the 14th lap of the run, the sixth since he pitted
Alonso pitted after eight laps and returned to the track. He is now lapping in the 1m28s
Today's pace-setter so far, Schumacher, goes out for another run
Kovalainen seems to be at the start of a long run, his fist lap of the stint a 1m32.024s
Heidfeld is also out on track now
1m30.1, 1m30.0 and 1m30.4 are Alonso's last three laps
We have spoken with Hispania's Colin Kolles, who is very happy with his new car:
"I think the car looks fantastic, not only aerodynamically but also the look. It is completely different to everything that went before in Formula 1, everything that is now in Formula 1.
"I think we have a very visible car, very visible for sponsors. This is my opinion - I think it's a great looking car. Obviously tastes are different, maybe people think it's an ugly looking car, I don't know. To me, it looks nice."
"I think the car looks fantastic, not only aerodynamically but also the look. It is completely different to everything that went before in Formula 1, everything that is now in Formula 1.
"I think we have a very visible car, very visible for sponsors. This is my opinion - I think it's a great looking car. Obviously tastes are different, maybe people think it's an ugly looking car, I don't know. To me, it looks nice."
On the sixth lap of his run, Alonso's times drop into the 1m30s
Alguersuari heads out of the pits now. Will this be the start of another pitstop practice programme for Toro Rosso?
Alonso running like clockwork so far. All his laps have been within less than three tenths of each other
By: Matt Beer, Jonathan Noble, Mark Glendenning, Pablo Elizalde
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